I do get what people are saying; I'm not misunderstanding this at all. I just think that when it's laid out for you in your materials, it's not the school's responsibility, it's yours. How is Panhel to know that you aren't lying about your GPA on your application? We had a girl lie about her legacy info because she wanted to be in XYZ so badly--it happens. We didn't have time to check all 1200 girls going through to make sure all their info was accurate before they went through. At some point, you have to realize these are 18 year old adults.

I was on Panhellenic in '07, and we tried to propose raising the minimum GPA for recruitment at my alma mater. Two groups would simply not hear of it. Even though they had higher standards, they wanted to opportunity to meet the women and choose at their own discretion if they would allow for grade exceptions. We all thought it was ridiculous because typically most chapter don't or only have a few and so these women were set up to fail, but we quickly dropped the issue because they had the right to take whomever they wanted. If they wanted to look at women with bad gpas, more "power" to them. :rolleyes:

The GPA requirements remain the same today.

BabyPink, it never got raised? Are you kidding me? I thought for sure it would happen the year after we graduated.

I'm surprised, considering the disparity in GPA requirements (2.2 for one group to a 3.2 for another) causing the heavy cuts we were seeing. I understand that the NPC Manual of Information states that the Campus Panhellenic cannot raise or lower the GPA to keep members' rights secure, but I would have thought that the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life would have set up the GPA increase they'd talked about for many moons.

No she is not leaving USM. They have to leave immediately if they are released from the process. They stay in a dorm for the recruitment events. They have freshman week next week. She will be back but did mention to her mom that several girls that were released will not be coming back to the school at all.

I agree with you, but I am wondering if in the South the pressure is a lot different? I don't know, I'm asking. I do know of girls at Indiana that dropped out of school completely when they did not receive a bid. My parents would not have allowed me to drop out of school; you go to college to get a degree, and anything you do above that is icing. I loved my sorority experience, but all of this seems a bit much to me. My university had over 500 clubs and organizations. Surely there are other things that these girls can do, and their worth is not defined by being in a sorority. If these girls are given the message that they shouldn't be at a school because they don't join a sorority, that's pretty sad. My heart goes out to them too, and not because they got cut.

To Twilight Mom: I don't think anyone ever answered your question, but if I missed it, sorry for the repeat. The girls can go to a maximum of four parties on skit day and two parties on pref night.

There is a lot of pressure at some schools in the South, but frankly, Greek Life is not as big of a deal at Southern Miss as it is other places. You can definitely not be greek, but be a happy and involved student. I have never heard of anyone not coming back to school because they dropped out or were released during recruitment, but it has probably happened a few times. No offense to the person posting these things because I'm sure she's hearing them from other people, but I feel like we might be hearing a few things that are coming off of the rumor mill.

My niece told her mom 2 girls on her floor chose to go home today because they did not like the choices left for them. Rumors ARE flying that some girls got no offers at all. My niece is only interested in 1 of the 2 left for her and will not do Greek this year if only XYZ offers for her.

She is being upbeat and positive but it's so hard on her and her mom, when your child hurts, you hurt. We know as adults it's not the end of the world, but when you're an 18 year old girl away from home, knowing no one, always being watched and scrutinized by your peers, it is difficult! Especially if you are cut hard and early, how difficult for one's self-esteem.

Niece has met some lovely and nice girls so all is not lost :) She is looking forward to officially moving in and getting school started.

Wasn't the reason Ole Miss moved recruitment back till school had already started because many girls would drop out of school if they didn't get a bid?
TupeloHoney - I hope your niece realizes that this is most likely her only chance to go greek and if she drops out that will be it for her? I don't like to tell other people what to do but I think she should stick it out and give the chapter who does give her a bid, whoever that is, a fair chance. I was in a similar situation and I am so glad now I didn't drop out of recruitment when I was cut by the chapter I thought was the only one for me.

[QUOTE]Wasn't the reason Ole Miss moved recruitment back till school had already started because many girls would drop out of school if they didn't get a bid?
[QUOTE]

I can't speak for Ole Miss, but this was the reason Arkansas tried it for a few years. There were definitely cases of pnms leaving school after a bad rush and the university was losing money. With rush occuring before school, the girls were dropping without much, if any, financial penalty.

This year, I am glad to report, rush is back to the week before school. Mid September rush (imo) is a nightmare for everyone involved. Trying to attend school while you are having rush is nuts. Parties start around 5 pm and one round last year ended at 11:00. Voting lasted until 7 am the next morning. There were no actives from our house in class that day!

I digress...sorry!

When I was a teenager, my mother--who used to live on the main street of the Arkansas campus where most of the houses are-- would tell me stories of how during rush, girls would leave in the middle of rush back in the day. (1930s-40s) She said they'd be packing fur coats and all this really expensive stuff into their cars and crying hysterically and then they'd screech off down Maple, never to be seen again.

Of course, until a few years after I was there, Arkansas had 'bed rush' and some years, over half of the PNMs didn't get bids.

I thought I had heard it all. Now I need a definition.

Bed rush is when each sorority sets its individual quota by how many open beds they have in their house at that time. I have a 1978 Razorback yearbook right here and it says that that school year, 624 girls rushed and 264 got bids. Way to make enemies for the Greek system!